Families Save Murderers from Execution

In two separate cases, family members have issued pardons for convicted murderers, saving them from execution.

On January 22, as authorities in Saveh, Markazi province, were in the process of hanging a 43-year-old convicted killer, the parents of the murder victim forgave him. The rope was cut, saving the convict, and after undergoing a medical examination, he was returned to prison.

Their son was murdered in his car in 2000. The man convicted of his murder first tried to poison and steal from his victim. When this failed, the man killed his victim and fled the scene. He was later arrested, tried and convicted.

The family accepted 150 million tomans ($55,000) as blood money for the murder, and, according to the website Dana, donated the money to a cancer research hospital.

On the same day, a mother from Hashtrud, East Azerbaijan forgave the killer of her son Muhammad, who was 18 years old at the time of his death 10 years ago. He had reportedly traveled to Qeshm to look for work, and had become involved in an argument with another man, who stabbed and killed him.

Authorities arrested the killer, and a high court tried and sentenced him to death, a verdict that was upheld on appeal.

Speaking about her decision to spare the life of her son’s killer, she said, “I did this for God’s sake and in line with the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad.”

Read the original article in Persian